Right now I'm thinking of doing my unit plan with my middle school class, as I'll be teaching natural disasters including storms, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Because Exeter-West Greenwich has trimesters the schedule is a little different, so my cooperating teacher and I have to work out exactly which of these topics I will be teaching before I begin my unit plan. Having block periods and the good fortune of having Smartboards in the classroom, I'm hoping to use visual interactive activities that will aid in my lessons. Using group activities can also help break up the block period, so I'm hoping to use short groupwork activities on a daily basis that can both help students discover new concepts and reinforce ones we've already learned. My cooperating teacher seems to do a very good job incorporating these into her lessons, so I'm hoping to work with her to find new ideas and things I work into my unit plan.
As the unit progresses, I'm thinking of maybe trying to have a culminating activity perhaps with the social studies teacher Mr. Wallace tying together catastrophic storms, volcanoes and earthquakes and how they affected society and history. This will depend on the social studies curriculum and what he will be teaching at the time I'm student teaching. I am hopeful about this though, seeing the teachers already go on field trips to Washington D.C., and going soon to walk the Freedom Trail and visit the observatory at Ninigret Park. It's clear that this team works very well together, so I'll have to discuss this with Mr. Wallace and see if this could be a possibility.
As the unit progresses, I'm thinking of maybe trying to have a culminating activity perhaps with the social studies teacher Mr. Wallace tying together catastrophic storms, volcanoes and earthquakes and how they affected society and history. This will depend on the social studies curriculum and what he will be teaching at the time I'm student teaching. I am hopeful about this though, seeing the teachers already go on field trips to Washington D.C., and going soon to walk the Freedom Trail and visit the observatory at Ninigret Park. It's clear that this team works very well together, so I'll have to discuss this with Mr. Wallace and see if this could be a possibility.